From Brazil: “I am so proud to be a Mum of my 2 beautiful daughters. Beautiful in my eyes of course, and hopefully in others eyes too. But what is beauty? I was born with a face and body that seemed to fall outside of what is conventionally called “beautiful” and was encouraged by doctors as a child to undergo plastic surgery to normalise my face. This started at 3 years old and continued though many hospital visits until age 20.”

“Now at 41, I still do not have a “conventional”appearance but have finally reached a point of acceptance in myself where my sense of self worth and happiness is not greatly affected by my appearance. This has taken years of self development work through Buddhism and Psychotherapy and has left me with a deep sense of compassion and understanding for all people whatever their appearance.”

“Having my beautiful girls arrive through the wonder of my body has strengthened that self acceptance and really allowed me to rejoice in being human and embodied. And how wonderful that they don’t have to go through what I did.”

“You look disgusting”: model with acne makes film of comments left on her blog.

“Three months ago, I began posting images of myself without makeup on social media. The film contains real comments that were left on images of my face.”

“Over the past few months, I’ve received thousands of messages from people all over the world who suffer or have suffered from acne, an insecurity or self confidence issues.” – she says.

“I wanted to create a film that showed how social media can set unrealistic expectations on both women and men. One challenge many face today, is that as a society, we’re so used to seeing false images of perfection, and comparing ourselves to unrealistic beauty standards.”

You are beautiful – no matter how flawed you feel, no matter how upset you may about the way you look or how hard you find it to make friends, or be confident. Believe in yourself, and never let anyone tell you’re not beautiful – not even yourself.

Brock Elbank has 90 images already showing the beauty of the skin marks which some feel are a curse – but he wants more subjects.

Beautiful skin: The images not only show the beauty of freckles but also make them look exotic

Anyone who grew up with freckles may have mixed feelings about them, but one photographer’s launched a positive project to celebrate them.

Brock Elbank has put together a set of beautifully shot portraits which not only show the beauty of freckles but also make them look exotic.

Those who cursed the light brown marks on their skin as children or spent time with a scrubbing brush trying to get rid of them may be flattered to see that each and every freckled face looks stunning.

“What I find interesting about individual characters that I have been fortunate enough to photograph is that many have struggled with their freckles since their infancy and either hated them, or grown to live with them or even like them in adulthood,” Elbank told Buzzfeed.

Photographic study: Brock Elbank has put together the set of beautifully shot portraits

Skin deep: Many have struggled with their freckles since their infancy

The London-based photographer says he was inspired to start the project by the son of a friend, but he’s not done yet. Although 90 portraits have been collected so far, he plans to take a total 150 portraits before exhibiting his work in 2017.

Auburn hair: The London-based photographer says he was inspired to start the project by the son of a friend

Snap happy: Brock says people either hated their freckles, or have grown to live with them or even like them in adulthood

Barbie is stick-thin, with glossy blonde hair, and perfectly symmetrical features — far from what any “real” woman looks like. If she was more realistic, would the kids who play with her have more realistic standards for beauty? Nickolay Lamm set out to answer that question by creating a doll he called Lammily, which was modeled after the average 19-year-old female body measurements from the CDC, and it created quite a media storm.

But he realized that, though Lammily has more realistic bodily proportions than Barbie, her skin is just as unrealistically flawless as Barbie’s. So he created Lammily Marks.

“I wanted to show that reality is awesome. It’s not perfect, it has its ups and downs, but it’s all we have. A lot of toys focus on fantasy and I wanted to create something more relatable. A lot of people suggested that kids don’t want to play with ‘real’ toys, that they want fantasy. I want to show that toys which are based on reality can be fun.“

100 Years of Beauty is a project that shows the change of beauty in different countries of the world, from ‘900 up to 2010 in a one-minute video . It’s very interesting to see how each epoch has influenced women’s fashion and beauty.

A video of 36-year-old Sally Gifford Piper that went viral has drawn attention to the fact that more and more women are getting transformed by Photoshop, that has led to unrealistic images of beauty.

The model in the video, has been quoted as saying

“I feel really angry about the pressure on women and the reality is that most of us don’t look like these perfect women,” she said “I think there needs to be a celebration of all different shapes and sizes. And we need to see more variety and I’m determined to fight for that.”

The video itself is a shocking revelation to what goes behind such Photoshop induced transformations. The result is that the model in the finished photo bears absolutely no resemblance to the woman who was photographed.

“For years I hated my saggy breast and lines. Hated them with a passion. As I got older, I realized there’s nothing I can do and just learned to accept them. Today I wear them proudly. Proud and grateful that I’m able to produce 40 ounces of milk daily while others struggle to squeeze out 2. Knowing that I’m able to provide the best for my child is worth every line.”

“It wasn’t easy to carry these lines. Now I’m wearing them with pride. I call them my side of Sunbursts.”

“I’ve always had lines right from high school even though I was skinny and I was so self conscious about them. Until I recently stumbled upon this project on tumblr and I saw how people embraced their lines and wore them with pride. Now I have learnt to accept them in all their beauty.”

“I got pregnant when I was 16. I was constantly depressed. I had few friends, frequently I ate lunch in a bathroom stall or with one of the school security guards for company. I thought my life was over. On top of all my worries I was getting terrible purple marks all over my belly, sides and breasts. Today I attend university to pursue a career in law. My daughter walks and runs, and I would gladly take a thousand of those all over my body to be where I am right now.”

“I really thought that my hard work and my dedication would transform me into the perfect person of my dreams. In reality, I had the opposite result . My experience contradicts what the media tend to represent.”

The American photographer Logan Norton wanted to represent the female beauty beyond stereotypes. The artist has photographed 109 women using as background Fort Ord. The revenues were donated to “No More Tears”, an NGO against violence on women.

I think it’s very important to propose new models of beauty through art, to counter the default templates that society offers us every day. Logan Norton’s work is exemplary and sends an important message that definitely makes us think.

“Reflections of The Past” is an award-winning photo series by commercial advertising photographer Tom Hussey. The photographs show an elderly person looking pensively at the reflection of his/her younger self in the mirror. Hussey was inspired by a World War II veteran who said “I can’t believe I’m going to be 80. I feel like I just came back from the war. I look in the mirror and I see this old guy.” The images were used by healthcare company Novartis in a marketing campaign for its Exelon Patch, which is used for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The campaign won a Gold Addy Award from the American Advertising Federation and was featured in the Communication Arts Photography Annual.

Close to the professional football circle, this artist starts to photograph sporting events. A chance meeting with a young homeless girl in the streets of London changes his artistic approach forever. Lee Jeffries recalls that, initially, he had stolen a photo from this young homeless girl huddled in a sleeping bag. The photographer knew that the young girl had noticed him but his first reaction was to leave. He says that something made him stay and go and discuss with the homeless girl. His perception about the homeless completely changes. They become the subject of his art. The models in his photographs are homeless people that he has met in Europe and in the United States: «Situations arose, and I made an effort to learn to get to know each of the subjects before asking their permission to do their portrait.» From then onwards, his photographs portray his convictions and his compassion to the world.